Costa Rica Pt. I
I stayed in Barcelona for my winter hiatus but after being there for a three month break I decided it was time to hit the road again, trying not to get too comfortable in the old hood and all that, the three months felt like enough to do all the things I wanted to do anyhow.
After I had been to the Asian and the north American side of the world it seemed to be the time now to check out central America with the intention to go further south after that, trying to complete the journey from Alaska to Patagonia.
After a bit of research the logical place to visit first turned out to be Costa Rica, just as Thailand is the easy entry to south East Asia, Costa Rica is the easy entry to central America. Safe, frequently visited by a whole bunch of travellers with a big, mainly American expat community. Also very touristy, easy to get around and beautiful, but quite expensive and a bit overrun especially in the more popular places, even in low season. Luckily I arrived for the beginning of rainy or low season, the country is basically unaffordable in high season, as prices for accommodation double or even triple in some places.
I arrived in San Jose and my first experience was to be ripped off at the airport by the taxi driver. In retrospect I was a bit dumb but it was a long flight and to my disadvantage I hadn’t figured out the value of the currency yet. We agreed on a price and once we got to my hotel he asked a lot more, I was so annoyed that I paid way too much which I realised just a bit too late, should’ve gotten the receptionist involved. Learned my lesson. These days I hate cab drivers and regret helping one of them after a night out in Barcelona when he and his car got attacked by two British tourists (probably after he tried to rip them off), I even lost a fine pair of shoes ninja kicking one of the British dudes off the cab driver. Today I’d just take a step back and enjoy the show.
That set the tone for my arrival and I have to admit it was a bit of a culture shock, central American vibes were different from what I’ve had experienced before. San Jose also is a bit of a shithole and while the beaches and natural sights in Costa Rica are stunning, cities are horrible and as San Jose is the capital it wasn’t one of the touristy bubbles, this place is as real as it gets. The name of the country says it all, Costa Rica translates to rich coast.
Wild Beach, Montezuma, Costa Rica
This was the first beach I visited in Costa Rica, I took the bus from San Jose straight to Montezuma in the southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula. I was impressed by how wild everything was, the rocks and cliffs, the vegetation all the way to the shore, the big waves, Jurassic Park vibes all day. This cove was just beside the hostel I stayed at, a family was living in that house.
When I travelled around Costa Rica afterwards almost all the other places I visited were tourist bubbles or the villages were so small that not much bad stuff was going on. I stayed in San Jose for a couple of days, walked around the centre, the most interesting place for me turned out to be the central market, which was very authentic, something the other places I visited later definitely lacked.
It was my first time in central America so judging the situations and the people around me was extremely difficult. The market was very lively and people were tying to sell their stuff everywhere, from the regular stalls to the irregular stalls outside the market area to people just trying to sell a bunch of avocados on the side of the road accompanied by a lot of people just hustling around. I wanted to take a couple of photos in the beautiful morning light, but was a bit scared to walk around with the camera out. The place was super local and some of the people hanging around seemed a bit sketchy, also no other tourists were around. Luckily some local boy approached me and for a little fee he walked me around and pointed out some photo opportunities with people he knew working at the market. Other than that I didn’t discover too many interesting things in San Jose so I quickly travelled on to the coast with the first destination called Montezuma. A tiny town right on the coast literally in the middle of nowhere, just a hostel on a rock overlooking the sea with an relatively authentic fishermen’s village just a 10 min walk away. Good vibes, too much free coffee and not much to do. Walking up and down the coast and discovering the incredible nature which reminded me a lot of Jurassic park, the best thing about Costa Rica in my opinion, the beaches off the beaten tourist track. Wild and untouched, no footsteps on the beach, just the sea, some sand, a lot of rocks, great sunsets, vegetation and big surf.hey see what helps and chill the rest of the time.
Sunset – Santa Theresa, Costa Rica
There isn’t that much to do in those surf-beach towns if you don’t surf and can’t afford to rent a car regularly. Something that is always an option is a nice walk on the beach around sunset time. This rock formation was a good hours walk north of the home beach. I dropped the 55mm f1,8 into a rock pool that day. Loved the kid throwing his fishing net into the sea.
Surfer, Santa Theresa, Costa Rica
Santa Theresa is supposed to be a surfers paradise, I didn’t really know the true value at the time, to me it was just a lot of wild and massive waves. I wanted to be a cool surfer-boy too, so I rented a board from the local shaper in front of the hostel. He recommended a longboard, I broke it on the first or second session, and then didn’t go to surf in Santa Theresa again. Luckily there is enough space and brakes to accommodate all the young and enthusiastic surfers.
I stayed for a couple of days but other than doing the things mentioned above there wasn’t much to do, also the work situation wasn’t that great, I had to get the computer out pretty much right on the beach, blasting the salty fog that the waves created crashing on the rocks below straight through it.
There was no privacy as the place was a hostel with a dorm situation. Hung out with the other guests a bunch but got bored quite quickly, I don’t like playing cards and drinking with the kids any more, so I moved on to the next destination, Santa Theresa, just up north a bit. This place is the cliche surfers paradise, in my opinion a bit overhyped, but as I wasn’t a surfer I couldn’t really tell the real worth of staying there. I just remember I broke my first surfboard, I rented a Longboard and broke it in half on the first day of surfing. I also remember the waves being pretty big, uncontrolled and unpredictable for the inexperienced surfer… a beach break. Luckily the dude was nice and only charged me 200 bucks for the broken board in the end. Just after I had broken it I checked online for prices of longboards and these things can be very expensive. Needless to say it was the last Longboard I ever rented. In my opinion in heavier surf and out of the white-water these things break too fast as their length serves as leverage making it much easier to snap them and turtle rolls just suck anyway. As fast as I had started I quit surfing again, I think I just lasted a couple of sessions, can’t exactly remember though. The beaches here were similar to the ones in Montezuma and even though there were more people around they seemed endless and if you walked far enough you’d end up alone. It was rainy season and on one of my excursions along the beach I got surprised by such heavy rain that I had to look through the trash for plastic bags to cover my camera and myself etc. When it rains it pours for sure and most of the time it happens in very unnecessary moments. If there were sunsets they were especially great, pretty much most days the sun would paint the sky in the richest colours, leaving me with some of the most picturesque and colour intense sunsets I had experienced so far. After quitting surfing I just hung around for a while and tried to take some good photos. I also found some weed which I hadn’t had in a while, so I got high for a bit. There was some work to do as well, so the time flew by. I remember staying there was quite expensive, I even had to go all in for a couple of days and rent an air conditioned studio with an acceptable work situation.
Downtown Santa Theresa, Santa Theresa, Costa Rica
This is the city centre. Santa Theresa consisted basically of a dusty road with a bunch of houses shops and businesses. The road was either so dry and dusty that after walking along it for a while my backpack would leave marks or so wet and muddy that some parts of the road had me walk in ankle deep mud. This is everyone returning from the sunset surf session.
